Misogyny may have played some part in the Salem witch trials, but evidence that it did is hard to find.

There were 22 people executed by the Salem Witch Trials. 21 found guilty and executed. One pressed to death during the course of refusing to enter a plea.

14 of these people were women. 8 were men.

So, more of the executed were women than men, but this was not an exclusively gender based event.

If we count all people caught up in the Salem Witch Trials (adding to those executed the categories of: Found Guilty and pardoned; Found Guilty and escaped; Plead Guilty and pardoned; Found not Guilty; Died in custody; Escaped custody; Indicted but not tried; Arrested but not Indicted; Released on Bond; Evaded Arrest; Named but Arrest Warrant not Issued), we get 108 people caught up in the Witch Trials.

76 of these people were women. 32 of them were men.

Women were more than twice as likely as men to be put in jeopardy by the Witch Trials, but the trials certainly targeted people of both genders.

The witch hysteria started with a group of girls / young women (ages 9 through 25). They were the source of accusations at the start of the trials, and the main source of accusations throughout (the other main source being those who plead guilty or were found guilty and then began accusing others. This was a good survival tactic. 12 people (all women) who took this route were pardoned).

I'm sure gender based study of the Salem Witch Trials would be interesting. Statistics indicate that simple gender bias hypotheses are likely wrong. Whatever role gender played is probably much more complex and nuanced.

Sources: http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/people?group.num=G08&mbio.num=mb46 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_of_the_Salem_witch_trials